Now that the smoke has cleared (no pun intended) it’s time to look back at all the demonstrations and violence following the police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri. The supposed rationale at the time for this violence, looting and burning was that police deliberately target black men.

The Ferguson demonstrations morphed into “black lives matter.” The slogan should really be “all lives matter.” If police are unduly targeting people of any race they should be held accountable.

At this point we should look at some statistics:

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the keepers of the statistics):

140 blacks were killed by police in 2012.

That same year, 386 whites were killed by police.

Over the 13-year period from 1999 to 2011, the CDC reports that 2,151 whites were killed by cops — and 1,130 blacks were killed by cops.

Police shootings of blacks are down 70 percent in the last 50 years.

Police shootings overall, nationwide, are down dramatically from what they were 20 or 30 years ago.

One can argue that proportionately more blacks are subject to police shootings than are whites. In a sense this is true since blacks are only 13 percent of the population while whites are 63 percent.

But a look at crime statistics is also necessary. Even though blacks are about 13 percent of population they commit more than 50 percent of the crimes, according to FBI statistics.

People of any race committing a crime are putting themselves in a position to possibly be shot.

Saying all this could be called racist. But nothing said here is intended to disparage or denigrate the black community. It is merely the citing of statistics from reliable sources.

With that said, there is little evidence that police target blacks because of race. They are required to confront anyone committing a crime or who is a threat to the public.

Police officers are no more “racist” than anyone else in the public, maybe even less so because they are subject to public scrutiny.

In addition to the charges of police targeting black men, we have the violence accompanying these charges in places like Ferguson, Oakland, etc.

No one who burns and loots is a protester. They are criminals and should be treated as such. Clearly all looters and arsonists are not black.

As a result, police have started standing by as the looting and arson es on. To some extent the reluctance to act could be due to the wave of accusations thrown at them.

The citizens assuredly have a constitutional right to demonstrate for any cause they wish. However, they do not have the right to loot, burn and be violent as part of these demonstrations.

They don’t have the right either to inconvenience the public by chaining themselves to BART trains, shutting down freeways, etc. When they participate in this they should be arrested and treated like the criminals they have become and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

As said earlier, the Constitution’s First Amendment guarantees the right to demonstrate. What these criminals are doing is not a legal exercise of those rights.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Please be peaceful. We believe in law and order. We are not advocating violence.”

Everyone should heartily support that and follow his advice when demonstrating for any cause.

Ken Hambrick is a former grand jury member and is chairman of the Alliance of Contra Costa Taxpayers. He is a resident of Walnut Creek.